Stamford crushes Danbury in boys basketball

By Tim Parry, Correspondent

Published 1:39 pm, Saturday, December 19, 2009

STAMFORD -- The Danbury boys basketball team is going to experience some growing pains this season under rookie head coach Casey Bock, and that was evident when they faced defending FCIAC champion Stamford.

Facing a 21-point halftime deficit, the Hatters came out strong in the third quarter with an 8-2 run and began closing the gap.

But Stamford head coach Jim Moriarty called a time out to calm his team down, and the Black Knights responded with a 19-0 run to end the quarter before winning 73-41.

"We really work hard every day in practice on our defensive pressure," said Stamford senior forward Mark Ellis. "We knew they were a very good ball-handling team and our guards stepped it up and put the pressure on."

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Ellis had 16 points and 11 rebounds in the win, while Jethro Arilus scored 21 points and had five assists.

Marc Guirand had 14 rebounds and seven steals to pace the Stamford defense, which also had a 12-2 run to open the second quarter.

"We had a little window to get back in the game, but we'd have to hit every shot. Once we started turning the ball over, the game got away from us," Bock said. "When you're down 20 against a veteran team that plays well and plays together, you're not going to get back in the game."

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Moriarty did warn his team that even though it played a solid game against Danbury and raised its record to 2-0, it's going to face a buzz saw when it travels to Bassick on Tuesday. Moriarty told his players Bassick is a team that will put the same kind of pressure on them as they did to the Hatters.

"I think Danbury is going to be very good. I just think they are young and inexperienced," Moriarty said. "I thought we rebounded well and played great team defense. When you hold a team to 41 points in 32 minutes, that's a heck of a job."

It was an improvement over Stamford's 54-47 win over Trumbull two nights earlier. Moriarty felt his team's offense clicked better against Danbury, and its defensive pressure was evident.

"We're in good physical condition and that's the way we want to be when we're running up and down the floor," Moriarty said.

Returning starters Ellis, Guirand and Arilus way have had some extra incentive to perform well against Danbury, as Sacred Heart-bound Chris Evans, one of last season's captains, was in the house to watch his former teammates play.

Ellis said the team as a whole learned how to win because of Evans and graduated point guard Michael Tiscia, and that it rubbed off on this year's group.

"We have three kids who played on an FCIAC championship team and you can't recreate that experience,' Moriarty said.